Reuters UK journalists accept new pay offer, call off strike

London-based members of the National Union of Journalists voted to accept a three per cent pay increase offered by Thomson Reuters with a raise of at least 2.5 per cent guaranteed for all journalists and the rest dependent on individual performance.

Union members last week rejected an offer of a minimum 1.75 per cent increase and called on about 150 staff to strike on Thursday and Friday.

“The settlement redefines the relationship between the NUJ and the Company and puts us on track to work constructively on urgent issues of pay transparency and a new house agreement,” a joint statement by union officers Mike Roddy and Helen Long and editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said.

Adler said separately from New York: “I'm especially heartened that everyone involved worked so hard to reach an agreement that enables us to keep publishing the outstanding journalism our customers rely on in London and around the world.”

He added: “We listened to the NUJ’s concerns and, during extensive negotiations, went back with an improved pay offer.” The agreed three per cent increase includes a minimum pay raise of 2.5 per cent and an additional 0.5 per cent available for merit raises.

The threatened 48-hour stoppage had been timed to coincide with Thomson Reuters’ 2011 full year and Q4 earnings announcement due on Thursday.

The last strike at Reuters was in 1980 when The Newspaper Guild of New York went on strike for three weeks in support of a pay claim. NUJ members stopped work in solidarity. ■